Gethsemane, Yad Vashem, Israel Museum, Lecture
Yesterday we started out at the church built where Jesus prayed right before his arrest in Gethsemene. The olive trees in the garden are well-tended, and they are from shoots of the original trees 2,000 years ago. The Byzantine church was built in the 4th century, along with the others Constantine and Helena ordered built. Then it was destroyed by the Persians, then rebuilt by Crusaders. There may have been another round of destroyed and rebuilt in there somewhere. I'm losing track. It's a Roman Catholic church now. Mass was taking place when we went in, so that was lovely. The adapter I brought to transfer photos from my camera to my computer went missing some time between yesterday and today, so I can only share photos from my phone.
Our next stop was across the street, where we saw Mary's Tomb. Of course, there's nothing in the tomb, because it is believed say she ascended into heaven from this spot. To get to the chapel we descended many steps. Halfway down there were two tombs -- one on the left, and one on the right. The one on the left was Mary's father's tomb. The one on the right was Mary's mother's. There were three services going on simultaneously -- Armenian, Greek Orthodox, and Syriac.
Next stop was Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. If I could do anything for a living, it would be to teach the Holocaust and related issues -- Anti-Semitism, Racism, Religious Persecution, Segregation, and how to avoid repeating these historical atrocities and injustices. Needless to say, I've been eager to see Yad Vashem for years. There were no photos allowed there. We made the mistake of thinking we could use the audio tour, but after 45 minutes, and having skipped several of the audio sections, we were still in the first of nine galleries. We had two hours at the museum, so I didn't use the audio tour for most of the rest. There was a lot of written information on the walls, so still a lot to absorb without the audio. I'm happy to say I knew a lot of what I was reading and hearing, having studied the Holocaust for many years now. But Yad Vashem had some items that are really incredible. For example, they have re-created a street in the Warsaw Ghetto, complete with the original cobblestones, original train tracks that moved Jews out of the ghetto to the camps, and the original lamp posts.
Outside the main museum was the Hall of Remembrance, which has an eternal flame. Beyond that was a Children's Memorial. When we entered the memorial there was a large wall of images of children's photos. Beyond that was a very dark hallway with a rail on the wall. There were twinkling lights on a mirrored wall on the wall opposite the handrail. I stood still, waiting for my eyes to adjust. There was no adjusting because it was so dark. Overhead speakers recited the names, ages, and hometowns of children who were killed during the Holocaust. Every few seconds was a new name. There are over a million names. It takes a year to recite them all. While holding the handrail we walked blindly through the hallway, hearing the names, until we turned a corner to the exit. It was powerful, and crushing.
After Yad Vashem we went to the Israeli Museum. By the time we got there my knee was really bugging me, and I would have been wise to stop walking. But we were at the Israeli Museum! I've been teaching World History and World Religion, and writing online World History classes for decades. Every time I try to find an image of The Second Temple, rebuilt by Herod about 10 BCE, I Google images and see either drawings or a photo of the scale model of ancient Israel at the Israeli Museum. I've always used the photos of the model, so I was happy to see it in person, taking photos I'll never have to cite or get permission to use! The model is a 1:50 scale of the original city.
Also at the museum was an exhibit about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Mom and I saw these scrolls in Chicago at the Field Museum some 15-20 years ago, but it was great to see them here, too. At the time we saw them in Chicago there was a woman in an enclosed glass room wearing a mask and gloves, holding a pair of gloves. She emptied out a small wax envelope full of scroll fragments onto the table in front of her. She began the tedious process of assembling the pieces into legible sections. She had to know Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic well enough to be able to decipher and assemble the pieces. I stared at what she was doing and then turned to my mom, "I want that job." (To be clear, I don't know Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic. There's no way I would ever have qualified for her job.) After seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls we entered the main building, which was very much like an art museum. Several galleries, each with a theme. One was about the Magic of the Shema -- the verses from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which are the most important prayer in Judaism. The gallery discussed how the Shema has been used to conjure miracles, by having it written on arm bands, amulets, bowls that were sunk into the ground around a house, and so on. Boy, was my knee killing me. I turned toward the exit, but then another gallery caught my eye and I had to view it. This one had an entire room full of Torah Scrolls, Torah Finials, Torah Crowns, and Torah Covers. This gallery was incredible. Two more galleries after that one and I finally exited to the building, only to see in the gift shop that there was a Rene Magritte gallery that I never visited. NO WAY! I LOVE RENE MAGRITTE!!! Oh well. My knee was probably better for having missed him. By the time we had dinner and walked back to the hotel my knee was swollen and cranky.
Once out of the museum we were on our way to a bookstore, which has been open since 1984, to hear about the Israel/Palestinian Conflict from an East Jerusalem Arab Israeli. Ahmed Muna is the second generation to run this bookstore. I'll talk more about him in my blog on the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict.
We had dinner at a great restaurant, which was advertising a "soft opening" on its menu. Our dinner companion asked, "Are you a new restaurant?" The host/waiter/busboy answered, "No! We've been open since 1949!" They've been closed for nearly 2 years due to COVID, so they are re-opening and happy to see tourists back in the country. Dinner was fabulous.
It was a rewarding experience to lay down and elevate my leg at the end of the day. Another day that was truly worth a swollen knee. :-)
